In a groundbreaking discovery, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has unveiled that planet-forming disks persisted longer in the early universe than previously thought. This revelation builds on findings from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope back in 2003, which detected a massive planet orbiting a star nearly as old as the universe itself.
These ancient stars, containing only trace amounts of heavy elements—the essential building blocks for planets—suggest that planet formation began when the universe was still in its infancy. Remarkably, Webb's observations indicate that some of these primordial disks not only existed but also endured longer than those around younger stars in our own Milky Way galaxy.
To verify Hubble's initial discovery, researchers utilized Webb to examine stars in a nearby galaxy characterized by a scarcity of heavy elements, much like the conditions of the early universe. The study leader, Guido De Marchi from the European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands, emphasized the significance of this confirmation. “With Webb, we have a really strong confirmation of what we saw with Hubble, and we must rethink how we model planet formation and early evolution in the young universe,” he stated.
This extended lifespan of planet-forming disks opens new avenues for understanding how planets, potentially even larger than Jupiter, formed and evolved in the universe's nascent stages. As scientists delve deeper into these findings, our comprehension of the cosmos and the factors that contribute to planet formation continues to expand, offering fresh insights into the mysteries of our universe.
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Webb finds planet-forming disks lived longer in early universe
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